Thank You, Deeply

Dear Deeply Readers,

Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018,
and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply,
we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting
and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next.
If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at
partners@newsdeeply.com

Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018,
and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource
on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community
of editors contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next.
If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at
partners@newsdeeply.com.

On April 1, several Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades and Islamic factions launched what they called the Battle to Release the Prisoners. Now their Islamist bedfellows, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, have taken the lead. Their goal is to free the inmates and take over the structure.

<div source=’picture’ id=’8187′ flow=’alignleft’ />

The prison is on a major highway that connects Aleppo’s rural north (the rebels’ stronghold) to the city, making it a prized location for the FSA. It was converted into a military headquarters shortly after the rebel assault began, and the infantry school and police station nearby were forced to evacuate.

Since then, it has been used as a launch pad for the Syrian army to shell surrounding areas and vehicles. The prison also contains military hardware and ammunition sought by the rebels. Inside, there are believed to be three tanks, in addition to more than 500 personnel.

While the complex has militarized as a base, its original inhabitants remain in their cells, overlooked. It houses over 4,000 detainees, including “prisoners of conscience,” women and children. The prisoners can also serve as pawns in stemming the rebel attacks. Opposition forces say that when clashes intensify around the jail, regime forces have responded by executing choice inmates, often political prisoners, to pressure the rebels to retreat.

Aid Workers in the Middle

Efforts to provide aid to those inside the prison are risky, and are often turned back.

Three Syrian Arab Red Crescent workers were wounded when an unknown party shot at their vehicle during a recent mission. But the organization was eventually able to enter the prison on July 13, bringing in 5,000 food rations and rescuing 10 prisoners who had completed their sentences.

In spite of a significant improvement following 15 successful missions by the Red Crescent, the fate of thousands remains unknown.

There are currently 1,000 prisoners slated for release. But the process is gratingly slow because the prison administration allows only 10 prisoners to be released at a time, and only when the Red Crescent has entered to distribute food rations and medicine.

After a recent trip, one Red Crescent member who requested to remain anonymous gave a grim picture of the prison. “Everything surrounding us was completely destroyed,” the worker said. “It was a ghost town, and more than half of the external prison fence was destroyed.”

According to Ahrar al-Sham’s communications director, the rebels are involved in the process of ensuring safe passage for the Red Crescent missions.

“Food has been provided for prisoners, through coordination between Ahrar al-Sham and the Red Crescent. A number of prisoners, who have completed their sentences, were released, and there are talks with other organizations to get food inside the prison,” he said. “The prison is surrounded and we working on liberating it taking into account the fact that there are prisoners inside and [we are] developing sound plans to storm [the prison] while suffering minimal losses of lives.”

Rebels say they have offered the Syrian army safe exit from the prison under the supervision of neutral parties in exchange for handing over the structure and its occupants. They say the regime has refused.

A Graveyard in a Prison

<div source=’picture’ id=’8186′ flow=’alignright’ />

In the shadow of Aleppo’s military stalemate, the humanitarian situation inside the prison is deteriorating, worsened when electricity was lost after shelling in the vicinity hurt its power grid. The power outage has caused damage to the water system; showers and basic hygiene are a luxury.

Overcrowding, malnutrition, lack of medicine and the deteriorating hygiene situation within the prison has led to the spread of many diseases among the inmates, including tuberculosis, scabies, typhoid and diarrhea. According to sources from within the prison, at least 13 people have died from disease.

Those who have contracted tuberculosis have been confined to a single room as so not to infect the other inmates. They wait to die, in the absence of care and medicine.

Food rations have begun to run out, with prisoners not always receiving their daily ration of a cup of water and 150 grams of raw flour.

The increasing number of dead, either due to the clashes or disease, led prisoners to set up a temporary graveyard in the prison. Released inmates talked about digging a mass grave in its eastern courtyard, where bodies of Syrian army soldiers and prisoners are buried en masse.

Farah, one and a half years old, was was the youngest inmate to have been released. Born in jail, it was the first time in her life she saw the sun.

Her mother, who has yet to complete her sentence for petty theft, was forced to let her daughter go. Farah stays with her grandmother while she awaits her mother’s return.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

In republishing any of our articles:

Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS:

Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Syria Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Syria’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:

This should read : “This article originally appeared on Syria Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about the war in Syria, you can sign up to the Syria email list.”

Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.

Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.

We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.

Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.

After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.

News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.

You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.

You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.

We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact community@newsdeeply.com